AMC Execs Comment on Status of The Walking Dead Spin-Off

Originally announced in September of 2013, “The Walking Dead” spin-off series has been dormant for some time with the only following news being the rumor that it could be a prequel. Now in an interview with Vulture, two of AMC’s executives spoke about the series, which they say is still in early development.

“That show is not as far along (as Breaking Bad spin-off ‘Better Call Saul’),” programming head Joel Stillerman said. “Robert has some things on his plate. He continues to write every issue of the comic and hasn’t finished season four of The Walking Dead, which he is very intimately involved with and will continue to be. That’s really in the incubation stages. The one thing that I’ll share is just an anecdote that Robert shared with us. He has such a specific vision that he laid out really clearly in the first issue of the comic book. And I encourage anybody who’s interested in the show to go read the note that he wrote in the first issue of the comic. His motivation for telling that story was so clear and so powerful, and it served as such a great north star for the show. We kicked around a few ideas, but primarily what he’s working on is, what is the idea that gives [him] as clear a mandate to make another version of this show as [he] had for the first one? What is going on [now] is a more philosophical discussion over why there should be another version of the show. Once we answer that, we’ll zero in on the specific creative.”

“What we want to do is not diminish the mothership,” network chief Charlie Collier added. “What we want to do is find something that everyone involved feels as passionately about as being a unique vehicle and unique enterprise as compared to the original series. We’ll take our time, and we’ll do it right.”

Kirkman, Gale Anne Hurd and David Alpert are on board as executive producers, with AMC Studios set to produce. The companion series has a target on-air date of 2015. What do you hope to see in the spin-off series?